Fanelia: Four Years Later
by DoofiPhoenix
Summary: My first fanfic! Please read and review and enjoy, I hope – I think the title says enough. Possibly VxH…but Dilandau comes in somewhere :
1. Chapter 1

Fanelia Four Years Later

My first fanfic! Please read and review (and enjoy, I hope) – I think the title says enough. Possibly VxH…but Dilandau comes in somewhere 

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne – or any of its original characters. And I'm still not sure whether I'll make any new characters of my own.

Chapter 1: An introduction to Dilandau's dilemma

This is going to be a really short chapter, but things might get better as I update :)

Dilandau buried his head in his arms. This was not one of his better days, seeing that he was Dilandau and not Celena. He was about to start one of his infamous tantrums when Merle walked, no, pounced on to him from the windowsill where she had just magically appeared.

"OWWWWWWWWW! What the hell's your problem?" Dilandau screeched.

"Oh, you've turned back into the narcissistic brat you used to be, haven't you?" Merle commented. "Well, that's okay. If you were Celena, I'd have warned you stay ten miles away from Lord Van" Merle took a good look at the silver-haired nineteen-year-old. It had been four years since the events of the Destiny War, four years since Hitomi left Gaea. Quite a few things had happened since then.

Allen and Celena/Dilandau were visiting Fanelia. Celena, unfortunately, had the tendency to turn into Dilandau every now and then. For this reason, Van decided to keep the male's pyromaniac properties in check by keeping Celena/Dilandau tailed by Fanelian guards whenever possible. Celena wasn't too bothered about this. Dilandau, on the other hand, was. They wouldn't even let him light candles, saying instead, "Er, let me do that for you, Lady Cel…er, Lord Dilandau." It was extremely annoying.

Allen agreed to the extra security. Since he was Van's close friend (though a rival in other ways), he trusted Van not to hold any real grudges against his…sibling. After all, the security was important. Dilandau did burn Fanelia down to nothing four years ago, and a repeat of that offense was not desirable.

Allen was twenty-five now. Still the Asturian knight he used to be, he continued carrying out his duties. However, when he asked to go on vacation to Fanelia a few too many times, Millerna, the Queen of Asturia decided that she might as well make Allen an ambassador, and send him to Fanelia 'on business'. Allen's visits to Fanelia became so frequent that Van decided to give him and his sibling permanent house-space. Allen was even considering becoming a dual knight-citizen on Asturia and Fanelia.

Dryden was King of Asturia only in a manner of speaking – he spent most of his time neglecting his royal duties, working on useless inventions in the basement of the castle.

Nobody really wondered why Allen found Fanelia so appealing. It was obvious. If there was any place on Gaea that would be home for a certain honey-brown haired girl, it was Fanelia. Everyone who had been involved in the Destiny War was waiting for Hitomi's return. Merle looked forward to Hitomi's return – Hitomi's was practically a sister to her. Merle only accepted this when she realized that she'd have to accept Van as an elder brother figure and nothing more. Allen had a fondness for Hitomi, similar to his feelings for his sister Celena, with a slight difference. Hitomi could never be Allen's brother.

Van wanted Hitomi to return. It had been four years, and the most he ever got out of their long-distance relationship was a glimpse of her every now and then. When he did see her, he was happy. When he didn't, he mentally beat himself up for never having proven his true manhood to her. But, thankfully, the last few years of rebuilding his country kept him occupied. Soon it would be over, and then he's have tp turn his mind to other matters. Anyways, he had already set aside a suite for Hitomi, right next to his own. It was rather larger then the one he had given Celena/Dilandau.

Celena spent most of her time clinging to her elder brother, not saying much at all, and becoming very irritated at her previous behaviour while in her random forays into maleness. But she listened patiently whenever Allen and the others talked about her. Celena was sure that she'd like this Hitomi character. Hitomi seemed to be a cool person, what with her long jumping antics, and saving planets that were not her own.

Her other half knew a lot more about Hitomi. Dilandau, however, would have preferred having Van to himself.

Merle looked at Dilandau. She didn't have much of an objection to Celena really – in fact, Celena was somewhat ordinary, and truth to tell, a little dumb. The occasions when Celena transformed into Dilandau were much more amusing. Merle adored bugging him.

Merle considered what she had said earlier, and corrected herself, "On second thought, I'd better tell you to stay away from Lord Van anyway." She smirked and hopped out of the window.

Dilandau scowled.

This is my first fanfiction ever! I'm so proud of myself – for reasons I'm not even sure of now. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, and I'll try to update, though I have a feeling that the next few weeks (possibly even months) are going to be busy, what with flights, college dorm move-ins, orientation work and classes. I'm stressed out already. Particularly about tomorrow's flight.

As for Escaflowne itself, I've just been introduced to it last month, and I've only watched the first seven episodes (though I should be getting my box set of the series in the next four days) – I know what's going to happen because I, like an idiot, decided to give into my weaknesses and looked at the scripts online. I can't wait to see them though.

I'd better be off now, need to finish the last bit of packing for my flight tomorrow.– thanks to my sister who's been beta-ing my work and putting in interesting suggestions here and there. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Hello to everyone  Thanks for reading the first chapter, and thanks to flyghosh (my older sibling), Macky, Darkangl28 and evanjohnston who gave me reviews. I appreciate it! I'm also sorry that I'm getting the second chapter out six months after the first – it's not because of lack of interest, but just a lot of classes. I even have the third chapter written, but I'll wait till I write the forth to post it. I hope you enjoy this chapter, but before I leave, I think I'd better warn people before they read this:

I know the idea of people going to America for college is rather clichéd, but that's really not a big point of the story – except for a few things here and there. It really depends on where this story is going, and that's something I'm not quite sure of yet.

There may be some shounen ai (that is, some gayness) but it is not likely to be very graphic. Of course, if it really does turn out that way, I will absolutely alert my readers before they actually read it. But I have a feeling that there won't be much more than kissing, I believe.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Fanelia: Four Years Later

Chapter 2: A Vision of Gaea

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its original characters. But I'm incredibly grateful to those who do, since they got such a cool anime into our lives!

Hitomi had just finished her classes for the day. She thought that she would spend some time under the tall oak tree until Yukari and Amano joined her there.

She decided to go abroad when the time had come to decide where to attend college. Yukari already made it a point to apply to the same school Amano did, since they were, after all, going out – and Hitomi thought, why not, what's keeping her back. So they all landed up together.

Hitomi sighed and looked up and the branches of the oak tree above her. It has been four years. She was already a sophomore, a second-year student in college. This year she was expected to declare her major, and she didn't have quite any idea what to pick. Of course, she could be faced with even harder choices. It was not as if she already hadn't: choosing between Gaea and Earth was a tough call. Seeing Van every now and then didn't help her feel she made the right choice. The whole deal with Gaea probably made her obsessed with making choices for the rest of her life. But what if she did go back? For one thing, she would never graduate, and that would not go too well with her. She liked studying a lot, she always did…in fact, wasn't she busy with a term paper the day all the mad stuff started happening? She was on the university track team, but solely for the purpose of not getting slow. Running wasn't a happy pastime for her anymore – it reminded her too much of Gaea.

But if she was given a choice, would she go back to Gaea and live there? Van would be there, and that would be great. But then again, she remembered, she hadn't seen him in ages, and had no idea how he felt about her. It was four years ago, and they were nineteen now. They were adults now (_and I'm an adult who got her only kiss from a guy who's fit to be my brother_, she thought ruefully) – would things be different now? But what about the doctorate she wanted (though she still had no idea what she wanted to do, she just knew that she'd adore doing research, arguing with other professors, ask students to go get her tea – oh, well, maybe not the last one)?

Amano spotted her from across the campus square and trotted up to her, "Ah, so you're done with classes for the day?"

"For the week – it's Friday," she replied, falling on to the grass and gazing at the sky above. "Yukari's not done yet?"

"Hmmm, I haven't seen her. Anyways, she'll be here soon. She never lets me…er, us down," Amano replied, turning a little red at his mistake.

"Yup."

"What's wrong, Hitomi? You're usually in a chattier mood. Are you worried about choosing your major again? You shouldn't worry, you've got enough time," Amano looked at her, a worried frown on his face.

Hitomi's attention was diverted from the sky, "Eh? Do I talk about choosing majors that much?"

"Ah, no. Not really. Well, maybe a little – OOOOOOOWWWTCCCCHHHH – stupid Frisbee!" Amano threw back the Frisbee that had just smacked him across the face to the poor freshman on the other side of the square. The freshman mouthed an apology and took off. Amano was a senior, and could be somewhat intimidating at times.

"Amano, are you hurt? Oh, you poooooooor thing!" No doubt about it. Yukari had arrived. Hitomi hoped she'd never act that way around Van, no matter how much she liked him.

Yukari continued to fawn over Amano, and Hitomi decided that this was quite enough for her. She got up and announced, "Hey guys, I think I'd better get a start on my…sociology paper – I'll see you later." She turned and fled. She knew that they'd know that she just wanted to leave them alone. She wasn't the kind to start a paper on a Friday afternoon, even though she liked working so much.

Hitomi walked slowly back to her dorm. She went up the stairs and entered the room she shared with Yukari. She took one good look at it, and then flopped on the pile of cushions on the floor. There was a half-filled coffee mug still sitting on the counter – Hitomi didn't remember whose it was: the three of them were up late last night working on term papers (though, Hitomi couldn't help feeling that Amano and Yukari paid more attention to each other than to their essays). Hitomi stared at the posters of movie stars on Yukari's side of the room, and then to her own side which featured a dozen of her favorite quotes, and a couple of white feathers stuck to the wall next to her bed. Van's feathers. Yukari asked why she put them up. Hitomi babbled on for a bit how feathers represent trust and love, and that she was trying to remind herself that there should be and is more of these things in this world. Yukari listened long enough to state what was on her mind, "You really need a boyfriend." She had paused and a look of astonishment and mild horror had come over her face, "or is it a girlfriend you want?"

Hitomi had stared at Yukari and had mumbled, "No." This had probably made Yukari even more certain of her sexual tendencies. Hitomi had not felt any need to elaborate on the matter of Van, King of Fanelia – though a mad thought had come to her mind that he could be a woman. She had discarded that idea about five minutes later.

Hitomi took a deep breath, and tried to relax. What was making her feel so jumpy all of a sudden? Nothing out of the ordinary happened – except for the Frisbee that hit Amano, and if that was considered out of the ordinary, then she was living a sad life indeed. Hitomi tried clearing her mind. The name Van popped up, something that happened whenever she tried clearing her mind. She gave up trying to fight against the thoughts that were trying to float back into her brain. So she thought. She remembered the dragon that brought her to Fanelia. She remembered the slap she gave Van when he was acting like a stuck-up conceited brat. She remembered how he told her he wanted her…and then ended up saying that he wanted her for her powers, by which point she was ready to throttle him. He got another slap for that. Then she wondered why she remembered all of these points in her relationship with Van.

She got up. Her mind was made up. She was going to go back to Fanelia. Having some nice good fights with Van would break up the monotony rather nicely, something Earth with all its terrific university programs could never do.

It was time to go back. And make sure that Van was, indeed, a man.

It didn't take too long to pack. She stuffed her duffel bag with underwear, and a few shirts, three pairs of shorts and a couple of pairs of jeans. She took a good look at the contents of her bag, and dumped in her world history book and a notebook.

She zipped up her bag and stepped out of her room. She took one look at it after she locked the door. Then she remembered she hadn't left a note for Yukari. "Ah, well, what's a dry-erase board for anyway?" For some reason, when Hitomi and Yukari decided to room together, they got three dry-erase boards after the second week. This was mainly because they both enjoyed writing to each other on them. And so did Amano for that matter.

Hitomi stepped back from the door and glanced at her message. The dry-erase board now displayed:

_Yukari – I'm sort of going home so you won't see me for a while…I'll give you a message as soon as possible._

Hitomi sighed. She really didn't know what else to write. In a way, she was going home. Gaea was home more than Japan was.

HItomi turned and ran smack into Yukari, who bumped into Amano. The domino effect resulted in every one lying in a heap on the ground. It happened so suddenly that nobody managed to squeeze in a yell or two. Yukari lifted up her head from under Amano's leg (Hitomi had no idea how it got there), and stared at the duffel bag. "Hitomi? What's up? Why do you have your bag with you?" She said in a somewhat squashed voice.

Amano, whose head was closest to the door, hovering over Hitomi's stomach, looked up at Yukari's board and read the message silently. Then he muttered, "Going home? Hitomi…I'm not sure if you realized this, but home is pretty far away."

"_Home?_" squealed Yukari.

"I know it's far away," Hitomi replied, wishing she'd left a bit earlier. It was rather uncomfortable lying on the ground like this, with Amano and Yukari above her.

Amano made an effort to get up, slipped and landed on Hitomi, his face burying itself right in Hitomi's chest. Hitomi's squeal of pain drowned out his already muffled yell. That was not all. Amano's leg knocked Yukari's knees from beneath her, and Yukari ended up sprawling over Hitomi's torso. Their lower bodies were entwined in a mesh of jean-clad legs.

Hitomi would never be able to verbally describe what happened next, and why it happened. After she got over the bout of pain that Amano subject her to, her thoughts flew to Gaea, and particularly, to Van. And the familiar sensation took over her: In front of her, another dimension, another place, another time appeared in front of her. She saw, before the edge of a lake, where the trees were lit by a brilliant sunset, and two people in close contact, their lower bodies concealed from her by a rock. One of these people had a strong, broad, unclad back, his hair gleaming a wonderful mix between gold and silver in the dying sunlight. The other person was hidden underneath, it appeared that the the tanned body was lying on the shore of that lake.

Hitomi stared. The bodies on the shore of the lake shifted slightly, providing her with a clearer shot of the scene. Hitomi knew that she would never be able to say why she thought what she did at that moment. _Van's not on top._

That's it for now – and I hope to write the fourth chapter soon, so I can post the third. Please tell me what you think, about my writing, the story, whatever – even if it's bad. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Fanelia Four Years Later: A Vision of the Mystic Moon

Disclaimer – I do not own Escaflowne.

Random Thoughts – I just changed my review settings so that I can get unsigned reviews. I wasn't aware of it before, and I hope I get more reviews now. Thanks to my second chapter's reviewers:  
majka – Thank you! I feel like I'm actually succeeding in my purpose!  
Inda – I don't think you have too much to worry about –hehe.  
jcvs – Thanks for all the hugs. You know who's responsible for getting me to post this chapter! Give me some nudges when you think I should write the next chapter :D  
A few more words – I don't know whether this story has a plot – I have a basic idea of where it's going, but more than anything, I want it to be an enjoyable read. So, tell me if you found it funny. That's reward beyond anything :). And I invite constructive criticism too – I await reviews.Back to studying for me –Enjoy!

Van paced in front of his council. The council watched him cross the length of the conference room. One of the members timed his movement – one minute and thirty-two seconds for one length, one minute and twenty-five seconds to return, one minute and two…

Van stopped short and faced his council. "Why do I have to do it?"

Leonard, the Chief of the Council, "Well, My Lord, if a King cannot stop her, nobody else can."

"Haven't you tried anyone else?" Van howled.

The King was being anything but kingly at this point, Leonard thought. "This woman is created chaos in countryside, and is gathering a great number of followers. She has already slapped several of our military."

"_Slapped_? That is why I have to go? Don't I have better things to do? I have a country to rule!" Van started his pacing again.

Travis, a Councilor sitting on next to Leonard piped up, "My Lord, her slaps are not ordinary. She has some strange power behind them – that makes one speechless…"

"I'm sure I've had better slaps than Monona Bariny can give!" Van snapped and stormed out.

Nobody quite knew what to say. It was only after a couple of minutes, while the Council was recovering from the King's temper tantrum, that a murmur of voices arose. That day the Grand Conference Room felt the presence of giggling once-manly officials.

Van walked over to the lake that adjoined the palace grounds, wearing his tan pants without the red shirt he was fond of. Hitomi's pink pendant hung from his neck, resting against his tanned muscular chest. Nobody quite knew where he got his toned physique from. He was desperately in need for a nice cool dip in a secluded area. He sat down on the shore next to a large rock and waited for the ripples of the lake to reach him. The wind was in his favor, ruffling his thick black hair. He sighed as he felt the water swirled around his legs which were stretched out in front of him. He felt something lift from him, possibly his weariness, his worries, his soul, his lack of a life…

"Ah, so kings have private moments too, I see," a somewhat feminine drawl came from behind.

Van's head shot up and stared at the intruder. "Dilandau!"

"I didn't quite expect you to be here - did some one tell you I was going swimming?" Dilandau walked up to where Van was sitting, wearing red and silver pants, cut off just below the knees. "Maybe you had something to tell me then?"

Van stared at the perfectly poised figure above him. "What? NO! I did not know you were here! I just wanted to relax! My council is giving me a hell of a time…"

"Ah, I see."

_Since when does Dilandau say, Ah, I see? What's wrong with the world today? What did I ever do wrong?_ Van was now disturbed and confused

"Do you want a back massage? I can give pretty good ones…even my Dragonslayers said that…before you went and killed them off," Dilandau looked accusingly at Van.

"I'm sorry," mumbled Van, "But the circumstances being what they were…"

"But I will feel better if you did something for me," said Dilandau, now standing right next to Van's feet, "I want you to light a candle for me."

Van felt that the situation was beyond his control, and possibly required some divine intervention. In a desperate attempt to get up, he grabbed on to the Dilandau's leg. Dilandau lost his balance and fell, his bare toned chest meeting Van's, his head meeting Van's, and his mouth meeting, yes, Van's.

_And the tale ran thus: the beautiful silver-haired young person fell upon his Excellency, Ruling Monarch of the Beautiful Fanelia, proclaiming deep emotions for our Beloved King…_

And Van could not quite describe the feeling he felt next. For in that fraction of a second that his lips met those of the blond boy's, he felt everything in his surroundings disappear and a new scene spin into his focus. He saw before him Hitomi, sprawled on the ground, with what appeared to be two people, one of whom was definitely male and had shoulder-length dark brown hair, and the other with shoulder-length red hair who could also have been male. _Hitomi_, thought Van, and closed his eyes, struggling no longer.

…_it is said that his Highness bore a great love for Lady Celena, and thus could not take his greatness away from her gentle yet manly form. He closed his eyes and embraced the heart of the young man who lay upon his bosom, as day embraced night on the shore of the Lake Geirabu… _


End file.
